


Business Casual

by fallen_woman



Series: Frat!AU [1]
Category: Mad Men
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-01-15
Updated: 2010-01-15
Packaged: 2017-10-06 07:28:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 616
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fallen_woman/pseuds/fallen_woman
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Modern-day AU. Peggy Olson is a good pledge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Business Casual

After dinner, Pete signs her pledge binder confirming the active-pledge meeting and is pleasantly surprised by the effusive comments in the back. "Adorable, hard-working. Would be great addition to the frat. – KC." Well. Kenny always had a weakness for Norwegian girls. "Only girl in pledge class. Impressive. –Menken." Trust Rachel to play the gender card in a business fraternity.

"You know you're not supposed to read the pages in the back," he says, handing her the binder across the table. She tucks it into the light blue backpack at her feet.

"I don't, Mr. Campbell." Peggy folds her hands in her lap, her pledge pin (a pyramid inscribed in a circle) gleaming against the flaccid brown of her sweater. "If it's… positive, I don't need to know, and if it's negative, I don't want to know."

He laughs, genuine. "I heard your pledge master ripped you a new one last Monday for not matching your suit jacket to your pants." There must have been blood all over the conference room after that demonstration.

The corners of Peggy's mouth turn down. "Miss Holloway is very fair. I'm buying a new suit at Macy's this weekend."

"Say, I might have one you can borrow." He raises his tone of voice, as if he's just thought of the idea. "My girlfriend Trudy, she's president of the Women in Business club. She's got so many suits, she stores some in my closet. Imagine that."

Peggy's lips waver, and for a moment Pete panics that he's lost her. "I don't want to impose," she says finally.

He waves his hand in dismissal and smiles. "She won't even miss it."

While Peggy changes, he waits in the hallway. After five minutes, he knocks softly—the door is unlocked—and walks in. She's standing in the middle of the room, fully dressed, holding Trudy's black Dior at arm's length. "It didn't fit, but thank you for the offer."

He shrugs and crams the skirt suit in the wardrobe. His gaze falls on his latest purchase, a Motto and Crest tie looped underneath a polo shirt.

"What do you think about this?" He holds out the tie to her. It's black silk, with a crosswise leather panel in the middle. "I'm thinking of wearing it to McKinsey tomorrow."

She strokes the leather inset like a little girl petting a pony. "I don't know very much about menswear, but it's beautiful."

"What do you think is the tensile strength?"

At this distance, he can hear her throat constrict. "Pardon?"

Pete wraps the tie around her wrists, does a serviceable Boy Scout knot, gives the end a little tug. "How much pressure do you think it can take before it snaps?"

Her answer is a breathy "oh" before his body crashes into hers, and her neck-pulse goes wild under his tongue.

***  
At 9 p.m., Peggy pulls on her jeans, adjusts her pledge pin. Pete sits on the wrecked bed and watches her finger-comb her hair in the mirror. There's something he should say, perhaps, but a soothing wooziness has settled in his skull and his chest, and all he wants to do is sleep.

"I've seen your girlfriend around campus before," Peggy says, hoisting her backpack onto her shoulders. "She's very petite." At Pete's blank expression, she adds: "The suit must fit her perfectly."

She strides to the bed and actually extends her arm for a handshake. "Good night, Mr. Campbell."

"Good night, Peggy."

He does wear the tie to the McKinsey presentation the next day. Throughout the PowerPoint, he runs his left thumb over the leather stripe, remembering the crush of Peggy's legs around his waist, the dryness of her tongue inside his mouth.


End file.
